Mario Kart Tour: The Complete Mobile Racing Guide

By Nham Vu · Updated July 2026

Mario Kart Tour is a mobile kart racer developed by Nintendo EPD and published by Nintendo, first released on September 25, 2019 for Android and iOS. I've put a stupid number of hours into it since launch week, and it remains one of the more interesting attempts to squeeze a console-style Mario Kart experience into a phone screen. It never fully replaces the Switch games, but it does something they don't: it hands you a new themed tour every couple of weeks, forever reshuffling the roster of tracks, drivers, karts and gliders you're chasing.

That rotating structure is exactly what confuses newcomers, and it's why so many people search for how the game actually works before diving in. Below I'll walk through the core systems, the multiplayer options, the character and item lineup, and the beginner mistakes I still see people make years into the game's life.

How Does Mario Kart Tour Work?

Mario Kart Tour runs on a biweekly tour system rather than one static set of tracks. Every two weeks Nintendo swaps in a new themed tour (Tokyo Tour, Yoshi Tour, Halloween Tour, and so on), each built around a run of cups that mix new courses with reworked tracks pulled from the console Mario Kart history.

Races themselves are automatic-steering by default: your kart accelerates on its own and you focus on steering left and right by swiping, plus firing items and pulling off tricks over jumps. You can switch to manual steering in the settings, which I'd honestly recommend once you're past your first few cups, because it gives you real control over drifting and mini-turbos instead of letting the game smooth everything out for you.

Progress is driven by a gacha-style pipe system where you spend in-game rubies or earned tickets to pull for drivers, karts and gliders. Each of those three categories has its own item skill and stat bonuses, and stacking favorable combos for a given course is a big part of climbing the leaderboards.

How Do I Get Into Mario Kart Tour? (Getting Started Tips)

New players start with a small roster and unlock more through the daily selects and pipe pulls, so the first week is really about learning which characters and courses you have rather than chasing a perfect setup.

The biggest early mistake I see is players ignoring drift and hopping entirely because auto-mode handles it. Manually holding a drift into a mini-turbo, or a stronger super mini-turbo, adds a real speed boost that auto-steering rarely bothers with. Learning that habit early pays off in every single race afterward.

A few habits worth building from day one:

• Complete daily challenges for consistent rubies and coins
• Save rubies for tour pipes with characters you actually want, rather than pulling on impulse
• Play manual mode in time trials to practice drift timing without race pressure
• Check each course's bonus challenge, since it often rewards a badge tied to score, not just placement

What Are Mario Kart Tour Tickets Used For?

Tickets are the currency spent on race entries and certain reward pipes, separate from the rubies used for gacha pulls. You earn a batch for free every day and get more from leveling up or completing specific in-game milestones.

In practice tickets are the resource you'll run dry on faster than rubies if you're grinding multiple cups a day. My advice is to spend them on the cup or course that gives your weakest badge score first, since chasing rank rewards is where most of the long-term progression actually comes from.

Who Are the Mario Kart Tour Characters?

The roster spans the full Mario universe, from Mario and Luigi to Peach, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Yoshi and dozens of costume variants layered on top of them, like Cat Peach or Detective Pikachu-style crossover skins that appeared during special tours.

Each driver, kart and glider carries its own special item, which is the real strategic layer of the game. A character with a strong special item for a given course, paired with the right kart's stat bonuses, can outscore a higher-rarity combo that doesn't fit the track. That's the detail a lot of casual players skip past, and it's the difference between a top-tier run and a mediocre one on the same course.

How Do You Play Mario Kart Tour Online or With Friends?

Multiplayer in Mario Kart Tour lets you race against other real players rather than the CPU-driven ghosts used in standard tour races, and it supports races with several competitors at once.

You can start a multiplayer room and invite friends directly, or join open rooms to race strangers, which is the more common route if your friend list on the game is thin. Connection quality varies more than in the mainline console games, so expect the occasional lag spike, especially during peak evening hours.

Can You Play Mario Kart Tour on PC or Switch?

Mario Kart Tour was built for Android and iOS and has no official PC or Switch client. If you want it on a larger screen, the realistic route is an Android emulator on PC, which plenty of players use for a bigger view and keyboard or controller mapping, though it isn't something Nintendo officially supports.

It's worth being upfront here: this is a live-service mobile title, and like most of Nintendo's mobile catalog it depends on ongoing server support rather than a permanent offline mode. If you're picking it up now, check current news before investing heavily in rubies, since live-service games in general can change their support timelines with little warning.